Nikolai Sergeyevich Leonov was a Soviet Union politician, prominent KGB officer, and specialist in Latin America. In 1953, at the age of 25, Leonov was sent to Mexico City to study Spanish at the Autonomous University of Mexico.
He met Ral Castro, who was returning from a youth festival in Europe, on the ship. When he arrived in Mexico, he was assigned to a low position in the Soviet embassy.
Leonov met Che Guevara through Ral Castro in Mexico City in 1955. Leonov violated embassy protocol by visiting Guevara, who was enamored with Soviet life.
After answering some of Guevara’s questions, Leonov gave him some Soviet literature. The two men spoke for the first time since their previous encounter in Mexico when Guevara went to the consulate to pick up the books.
Leonov is the author of Essays on Contemporary Central American History and a PhD in Latin American history from the Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences (Moscow: Academy of Sciences, 1973).
Difficult Times was the title of his autobiography, published in 1985. Until 1998, he was a professor at Moscow’s Institute of International Relations.
In December 2003, Leonov was elected to the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, as a member of the nationalist Rodina party.
He died of natural causes in Moscow. He was surrounded by relatives and close friends.
